Instructors See Course Sections They're Not Teaching

Issue

There are courses included on a staff member's SS&E dashboard that the instructor is not teaching.

Note: The same troubleshooting steps also apply to the opposite scario where an instructor is missing a course section(s) that they expect to see on their dashboard.

Analysis

In most cases, the reason a course is showing on the wrong instructor's dashboard, is that sometime in the past, the course section was imported with an instructor that was later changed or removed within the SIS, and for some reason this was not updated correctly in SS&E.

• SS&E assigns instructors to course sections both from the Course Section and the Course Section Schedule Element data feed.
• The primary instructor imports on the Course Section data feed, while secondary instructors import on the Course Section Schedule Element data feed. Primary Instructors are displayed in the first position and used when there is only an option for one instructor. Otherwise, they are the same and can both view course sections, mark attendance etc.
• Click here to review how multiple instructors get assigned/can view a course section in SS&E.

From the above link:

"There can only be one primary instructor (imported on the course section data feed), and any number of secondary instructors (imported on the course section schedule element data feed) that display on the course section record and can view the course roster based on the CSSE record's course section Id. No matter how instructors were assigned, either by the Course Section (as a primary instructor) and/or Course Section Schedule Element data feed ( as a secondary instructor), all instructors associated with a course section will be able to access all the course section meetings, attendance information and modify attendance on those course section meetings (if using the SS&E Attendance Tracking feature)."

Troubleshooting Steps

1. Verify which instructor(s) are currently associated with the specific course section in SS&E.
   
   • • Click here to access SS&E Administration -> Course Sections and search for the course section displaying an old/incorrect instructor.
     • The "Instructor" column will display all instructors that are currently associated with the course section in SS&E.
     • Copy the Course Section src_system_id from the "Source System Id" column.
2. Click here to access SS&E Administration -> SIS Integration -> Datafeeds -> Course Section -> Imported Data -> View.
   • • Searching by the course section src_system_id from step 1, verify the primary instructor instructor_id is correct.
     • Check if the src_system_id record is deleted=true, since this would explain why data is missing in SS&E since it was "removed" from the UI via data deletion integration or manual deletion.
3. Click here to access SS&E Administration -> SIS Integration -> Datafeeds -> Course Section Schedule Element (CSSE) -> Imported Data -> View.
   • • Searching by the course_section_src_system_id from step 1, verify the secondary instructor(s) instructor_src_system_id(s) displayed in SS&E.
     • View how many CSSE records are associated with the course section in step 1, and check how many records are associated with an "incorrect" instructor.
     • Check if any src_system_ids are associated with records that are deleted=true, since this would explain why data is missing in SS&E since it was "removed" from the UI via data deletion integration or manual deletion.
4. Download the Course Section and Course Section Schedule Element data extracts from here.
   • • From the Datafeeds screen, scroll to the Course Section data feed, then right-click on "Download Extract" to "Save link as...". 
     • From the Datafeeds screen, scroll to the Course Section Schedule Element data feed, then right-click on "Download Extract" to "Save link as...". 
5. Search the data extracts for the primary and secondary instructor(s) that are currently being imported into SS&E from the SIS. Search each data extract for the src_system_ids that represent what is importing and check if there are any additional records importing an instructor for the same course section. 
   • • Search the Course Section data extract using the course section src_system_id from step 1. Check the instructor that is being imported on the course section feed.
     • To search the Course Section Schedule Element data extract: Search by the course section src_system_id from step 1 and note if/which records match course section schedule element src_system_ids from step 3.
       • If the Course Section Schedule Element data extract includes any records with "incorrect" instructor data, that is why it's not removed.
       • If any record found in step 3 is found in the CSSE data extract, check the instructor in the data extract. If records are importing with no instructor (":"), yet the data view (step 3) shows old/bad data displaying in SS&E, reset the Course Section Schedule Element data feed cache so that the empty instructor will import and remove the "old" from the UI.
6. The next steps depend on the findings in step 5:
   • • If the data extracts match the instructor data displayed in SS&E, and that is not the expected data, this must be corrected in the source data, i.e. the SIS and/or the data extract definitions. What this means is that, for some reason, the data found in the course section and/or course section schedule element data extracts do not include the correct instructor data. This explains why the data is not displayed correctly in SS&E.
     • If the data extracts only include records with the correct instructor data - and this data is not being reflected in SS&E- please open a ticket with SS&E Support and include all the above information for a quick resolution. 
       • • For example, in most cases, the Course Section data extract includes the correct instructor, and the Course Section Schedule Element (CSSE) data extract is set to import with no instructor (i.e. the instructor is blank - "instructorId":""), yet for some reason, the CSSE Imported Data View is displaying an old instructor that imported from the SIS sometime in the past and has since been removed (step 3). To fix this, Support can reset the daat feed to import data directly from the CSSE data extract file which should remove the "old/incorrect" instructor from the UI and match the records found in the CS/CSSE data extracts (step 5).

Note: After resetting the cache, there may be a slight delay since we must wait for the next SIS Import Job to run and complete before checking if the issue is resolved. 

• If resetting the cache resolved the problem and instructor(s) are only able to see the correct courses in SS&E, the ticket can be closed.
• If resetting the cache does not resolve the issue and instructors are still able to see courses that they are not instructing (or not see courses that they are instructing) , most likely the data was removed by another method other than SIS Data Deletion Integration, causing a mismatch between the UI and the data that is currently importing via the CS/CSSE data extracts.

Course Section/Course Section Schedule Element Data Deletion

Since both Course Section and Course Section Schedule Element integrate SIS Data Deletion, records should be removed from SS&E via the Course Section All Ids and the Course Section Schedule Element All Ids data extracts.

• SIS Data Deletion Integration can only be configured on select data feeds and is usually set up during SS&E Implementation. To learn more about SIS Data Deletion, click here.

To summarize, SIS data deletion integration will allow a CS/CSSE record to be deleted in the SIS system and then automatically deleted in SS&E via the All Ids data extract, as soon as the All Ids file stops importing the src system id found in the imported data view.

• Once the Id is removed from All Ids data extract, the record will be marked as deleted=true in SS&E and removed from the UI.
• If the record/Id should still display in SS&E, then the src system id must be added back into the All Ids data extract so that the record is marked as deleted=false in the SS&E database and displayed on the UI.

How to Remove Old "Bad" Data

If the Course Section Schedule Element Imported Data View includes "old/bad" data (seen in step 3) that has since been removed from the Course Section Schedule Element data extract (step 5 does not show any bad data), and should not be seen in SS&E:

1. From Datafeeds Administration, download the Course Section Schedule Element All Ids data extract and verify that the file does not include the src system Ids for the "old/incorrect" data (found in step 3).
2. If there is no "incorrect" data importing in the Course Section Schedule Element data extract (step 5), and the Course Section Schedule Element All Ids does not include any Ids that match the incorrect data seen in the CSSE Imported Data View (step 3), then the "incorrect" data can be manually removed from the Course Section Schedule Element Imported Data View.
3. Users with the SS&E Administrator role can manually remove "old/incorrect" data from SIS Integration Datafeed Administration on the Course Section Schedule Element Imported Data View by filtering/displaying/selecting only the "old/incorrect" data and deleting the selected records.
4. This data will not reappear in SS&E since it is no longer importing in the CSSE data extract, and the src system Ids that match the bad records are not included in the CSSE ALL Ids data extract.
5. Deleting records mark them as "deleted = true" which removes the records from displaying on the UI yet does not delete them from the database. "Deleted" records can still be found on the Imported Data View, and if needed can be manually "Undeleted".
6. If any course / course section data is importing from the SIS via the data extract or All Ids, then manually deleting/undeleting a record will not matter, since the SIS Import process will change any manual update the next time the All Ids file imports into SS&E. 
7. For more information about SIS Data Deletion Integration "Manual Data Deletion", click here.